TENDER NOTICE FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES 

Title of the Tender: Hiring an Individual Consultant /Consultancy firm to conduct a retrospective evaluation of the Commerçantes Solidaires pour la Paix dans la Région des Grands Lacs (COSOPAX/RGL).

Tender Reference Number: CRS-Rwanda 012-FY24-TN/2024

Procurement Method: National Open Competitive Tender

Date of Issue: January 24^th ,2024

Deadline for submission: February 7^th, 2024

Terms of Reference for Hiring an Individual Consultant/Consultancy firm to conduct a retrospective evaluation of the Commerçantes Solidaires pour la Paix dans la Région des Grands Lacs (COSOPAX/RGL) Project

1. About Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development works are accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peacebuilding. The Country Program has over 80 staff and implements its projects through local and international partners, with strong coordination/collaboration with Government of Rwanda structures. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been working in Rwanda since 1961. CRS Rwanda’s key programing areas include youth empowerment, agriculture, early childhood development, economic strengthening, justice, and peace building. To achieve this, CRS collaborates with the government of Rwanda, donors, the Catholic church, private sector, and civil society organizations. 

2. BACKGROUND

COSOPAX/RGL was a cross-border project that operated from 2013-2019 in the area between Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has been the grounds of protracted cycles of violent conflict for the past three decades. The conflict particularly took on regional dimensions after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda against Tutsi that triggered massive refugee flows out of the country, followed by persistent insecurity in eastern DRC. These events led to seemingly intractable cycles of conflict with spillover effects at the regional level, entrenching suspicion, fear, and mistrust among populations divided by national borders.  Although the drivers of conflict are linked to the political and economic interests of elites, the impact reverberates at the grassroots level, where rumors, prejudices and political manipulation have increased divisions, fear and mistrust between individuals and communities within and across borders. 

To address the increased fear, mistrust, and stereotypes within and between communities, CRS launched COSOPAX in 2013, with the goal of bringing female cross-border traders together across dividing lines to strengthen their economic and social capacities to work for peace. COSOPAX reinforced and built upon the natural connections between women traders, by creating opportunities for increased interaction, dialogue, and collaboration in trade, with the hopes of building trust between individuals and communities across borders. 

Cross-border trade is mostly carried out by small traders, an estimated 85% of whom are women.^[1]  The many cycles of conflict that continue to affect the region limit the livelihood options of women, coupled with land reforms that deprive women of their agricultural means of subsistence. For most female traders, cross-border trading is a key survival mechanism in the absence of other economic alternatives. Small cross-border trade can be defined as, “any revenue-generating cross-border commercial activity with a daily transaction value of less than 100 US dollars (USD) per trader^[2] 

Women cross-border traders in the Great Lakes region play an important role in building and maintaining interdependent socio-economic relationships between their border communities and nations.  Yet, women in the cross-border areas continue to face cultural, political, and economic obstacles, which limit their ability to actively exercise leadership for conflict resolution and peace promotion. Recognizing the critical and potentially transformative role that women traders play in social and economic processes, the COSOPAX program sought to enhance women’s skills and capabilities in peacebuilding, coupled with economic strengthening strategies. The project operated in Bukavu and Uvira in DRC, Cyangugu in Rwanda, and Bujumbura in Burundi. It included 120 total program participants who worked together in a socio-economic network to strengthen trade and peace promotion in the cross-border areas.  

The objectives of the COSOPAX program were:  1) Women cross-border traders in the Great Lakes region collaborate in a formal socio-economic network for peace; 2) Women cross-border traders in the Great Lakes region mobilize people and systems in their respective communities for long-term peacebuilding. The corresponding theories of change were: 

Theory of change for objective #1:  By bringing together women engaged in cross-border trading on a regular basis, they will overcome mistrust and prejudices that divide them, and they will cultivate resistance to ethno-political manipulation. 

Theory of change for objective #2: If women cross-border traders acquire better competencies in peacebuilding, they will be able to contribute to intra- and inter- communal conflict resolution without resorting to violence, which will reinforce a culture of peace in the region. 

It was expected that increased interactions and dialogue between informal traders from the three countries would lead to increased trust and social cohesion between border communities. The theory of change assumes that if women are trained in peace promotion and economic strengthening and supported to carry out advocacy on issues of common interest, they will serve as a positive example of tolerance, solidarity, and collaboration across lines of division, and will subsequently be able to mobilize people and systems in their communities for long-term peacebuilding. 

In FY 2019, the COSOPAX project was closed and COSOPAX women were engaged in continuing the social cohesion mission on their own. Since then, the COSOPAX associations in all the three countries have developed a culture of providing regular assistance to the vulnerable and assisting in advocacy and conflict mediation in line with a call for all abled people to contribute however possible in solidarity with the neediest of their communities. 

3. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study is to conduct a retrospective evaluation of the former CRS-funded “Commerçantes Solidaires pour la Paix dans la Région des Grands Lacs” (COSOPAX/RGL) project, with the goal of assessing the impact that COSOPAX has had on project participants and community members focus primarily on the ex-post impacts, replication/expansion, and sustainability. The goal of this retrospective evaluation is to measure and document the project’s impact, localization achievements, and sustainability against its goal and strategic objectives. 

The retrospective evaluation, in addition to meeting the OCECD /DAC sustainability goals, will be expected to respond to the following criteria and evaluation questions as suggested by the OECD/DAC criteria for evaluation of development programs ^

1. Impact: Did the project interventions contribute to reaching higher level objectives (preferably, overall objective)? Was the impact or effect of the intervention proportion to the overall situation of the target group or those affected?
2. Connectedness/Sustainability: Are the positive effects or impacts sustainable? How will the sustainability or permanence of the intervention and its effects inform CRS' future programming?
3. Replicability: Can project activities be scaled up or be applied to a different setting?
   1. Was the project in line with local needs and priorities? How important was the relevance or significance of the interventions regarding local and national requirements and priorities? Were interventions in some cases more relevant and more appropriate than in other cases?
4.  Coherence: How coherent was the overall approach?  Were project activities consistent with the theories of change?  Were they complementary with each other, and free of contradictions of general peacebuilding principles? 

The retrospective evaluation should consider findings from the project endline study and other evaluation in order to further assess the continued impact and long-term sustainability of COSOPAX considering the program goals, objectives and participants (both direct and indirect). 

3. PRIMARY RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

• Relevance/Appropriateness: What impact has COSOPAX had on collaboration between female cross-border traders and their individual economic well-being?
  • To what extent has COSOPAX improved women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment of female cross-border traders?
  • How has COSOPAX affected the average monthly income of female cross-border traders?
  • How has COSOPAX affected formal tax collection systems governing cross-border trade and the movement of cross-border users in the region?
  • How collaboration between female and male COSOPAX affects income and economic empowerment of the households?
• Impact/Sustainability: What ongoing impact has COSOPAX had on the social cohesion of communities and households where COSOPAX women live in and work?
  • How impactful the COSOPAX project still are on the perception of female traders in the community and marketplace?
  • How impactful the COSOPAX project activities still are on female empowerment in affected communities?
  • How impactful the COSOPAX project activities are on male participation and interaction within affected households and communities?
  • Are COSOPAX women still perceived to be agents of peace in their communities?
  • To what extent did the project help women cross-border traders overcome mistrust and prejudices that divided them?  Did the project cultivate resistance to ethno-political manipulation?
  • To what extent did the project improve women cross-border traders’ competencies in peacebuilding? How able were they to contribute to intra- and inter- communal conflict transformation?
  • To what extent did the project participants contribute to reinforcing a culture of peace in the region?
• What has been the impact of COSOPAX on reconciliation efforts, advocacy, and the promotion of peace?
  • What has been the impact of COSOPAX advocacy events and activities within communities?
  • What effect have COSOPAX events and activities had on cross-border relations? 
  • What effect have COSOPAX conflict mediation efforts had at the household- and local market-levels?
• Sustainability: What activities are COSOPAX project participants still engaged in to promote peacebuilding, reconciliation, and economic well-being since the CRS funding ended?
• Coherence: What new activities, networks or partnerships have been established since the project’s end to support continued social cohesion efforts and promote sustainability? If applicable, how are they funded?
• What factors, if any, have contributed to increased resiliency of female cross-border traders despite an economic downturn during the COVID-19 pandemic? To what extent have these factors be attributed to the COSOPAX project?
• What COSOPAX approaches can contribute to achieve CRS’ commitments and targets with regards to Vision 2030, specifically SCP 1 (integration of social justice and social cohesion across development and humanitarian sectors), as well as governmental and international cross border peacebuilding and social cohesion initiatives in the region?
• Replicability: To what extent, if at all, are the theories of change described for COSOPAX applicable in other contexts outside of the Great Lakes Region? To what extent do the approaches applied in the COSOPAX project lend themselves to be replicated elsewhere? 

4. METHODOLOGY

It is expected that the selected candidate will design his/her data collection methodology including a questionnaire with general questions to guide the conduct of the evaluation, per the terms of reference. The main questions should be focused on current perceptions and compared to data generated during and at the end of the CRS-funded project.  The methodology is expected to be participatory & inclusive, to use mixed methods and to be conflict-sensitive, etc. To that effect, the consultant will propose the conceptual framework(s) he/she will use to guide the evaluation.

Potential program documents to be reviewed will include:

• Program performance reports (Annual reports; meetings report; trip reports).
• Program design documents
• Final evaluation and final COSOPAX project report; mid-term and newsletters.
• Government reports, policies, and guidelines
• Relevant published articles on peacebuilding and reconciliation in the Great Lakes region
• Policies, strategies, reports produced on the topics by international organizations including WHO, FANTA, USAID, UNICEF, etc.
• CRS 2030 strategy and related documents

5. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES. 

• Data collection methodology and information management.
• Final retrospective evaluation report to be submitted and reviewed for approval.
• A power point presentation

6. QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE CONSULTANCY AND REQUIRED EXPRIENCE 

• Holder of a master’s or a PhD degree in relevant field such as Peacebuilding/ Conflict resolution; International Development, Social Sciences; background in working with local / international NGOs in the evaluation and research domain.
• Demonstrate experience of at least 5 years of working experience in conducting evaluation impact, and sustainability assessment preferably in the field of the target areas or community development projects for sustainable outcomes.
• Capability to effectively present evaluation findings to stakeholders through reports and presentations.
• Demonstrate experience in research publication in peace building and social wellbeing aspects.
• The consultant should have demonstrated research and analytical skills, including the ability to collect, analyze, and interpretation, leading to the production of comprehensive studies reports related to Conflicts resolutions/ economic well-being.
• Familiarity with Rwanda regulations related to evaluation protocols, including experience in obtaining necessary approvals from relevant authorities.
• Demonstrated proof of previous experience in similar assignments with women small traders will be an asset.
• Must be available within the period of the evaluation and publication.
• Consultancy Firm should be registered in his location. 

7. REPORTING AND WORKING LANGUAGE ARE BOTH IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH 

• The consultant will report directly to Partnership and Capacity strengthening Coordinator; former COSOPAX partners; COSOPAX association participants and work closely with the CRS Country Program of Rwanda, Burundi and DRC as well as the COSOPAX associations delegates.

8. TIMELINE

Expected to take place in February 2024. 

9. SELECTION CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGY 

The consultant will be selected using the quality and cost-based selection against the following criteria: 

• Administrative Evaluation

1. The consultant should be legally operating as consultant.
2. VAT and/or Tax clearance certificates if applicable
3. Bid validity period.

• Technical Evaluation 

N.B: The minimum technical score for the consultant to pass the technical stage is 70%.

• Tw = % Weight of technical score (80%)
• Fw = % Weight of financial score (20%)

The financial score for each consultant/firm will be calculated using the following formula:

• Financial score (FS) = (LF x 100)/ Fi
• LF = The lowest financial proposal.
• Fi = The proposal to be evaluated.
  • Financial evaluation
• The winning consultant/firm will be determined by combining the technical score and financial score as per the following formula:
• Final score (S): (TS x Tw%) + (FSxFw%) where:
• S= Final score
• TS = Technical score
• FS = Financial score
• Tw = % Weight of technical score (80%)
• Fw = % Weight of financial score (20%)
• Price schedule

Note:

• The cost should be inclusive of required taxes (15% WHT or 18%VAT Tax)
• All Rwandan consultants must quote in Rwandan Francs, while external consultants must quote in USD.

CRS will cover expenses related to the participation of the relevant parties. 

10. Confidentiality 

All documents and data will remain the CRS property and must be treated as confidential and used solely to facilitate this assignment.

11. Application process 

Interested individual consultant/ Consultancy Firm are encouraged to send their applications to rwandabids@crs.org no later than February 7^th , 2024 at 11:00am Kigali time. The title of the email must include: “Retrospective evaluation for COSOPAX RGL.’’ and the application document should include the technical proposal and financial proposal in two PDF documents. A late submission will not be considered.

   Length of the bid document

Interested bidders should submit technical and financial proposal documents that do not exceed 10 pages maximum without annexes.

Done at Kigali, January 24^th , 2024.

Charlotte BATANAGE

Acting Country Representative

[1] World Bank (2011). “Facilitating cross-border trade between the DRC and Neighbors in the Great Lakes Region of Africa:  Improving Conditions for Poor Traders,” Report No. 62992 – AFR. Washington, DC.

[2] Ibid.